Douglas to have surgery following spill
 

Jockey Rene Douglas, hurt in an accident late Saturday afternoon at Arlington Park, was to undergo surgery at 11 p.m. Central at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago after being transported via helicopter from Northwest Hospital near Arlington.

Douglas has an injured back, according to his longtime agent Dennis Cooper, and was to have arthroscopic surgery, the concern being the possibility that a bone splinter had lodged in his spine.
http://www.drf.com/news/article/104048.html

that's not good to hear. hope the surgery goes ok.

The track announcer did not even acknowledge the accident during the race.

sorry to hear he will require surgery. hopefully he'll make a full and swift recovery.

this, on the horse, from bloodhorse:

Cooper said he had been told that the horse, trained by Eric Coatreiux, had recovered from the incident. A spokesperson for Arlington Park said the filly was back at the barn having some issues, but had not been euthanized.

i addressed this in another forum and its late so i'm just going to cut and paste.

"I'll tell you exactly how. listen to the call. about 1 second after the horse fell he gives you the 3/4 time. when an announcer goes to give the fractional time, especially when they are turning for home, they generally have to look all the way to their right to see the time on the board, then go back to their binoculars, thus they are probably looking away from the race for anywhere from half a second, to a full second or more.

when the horse went down, John G. was looking at the board to get the 3/4 time. when he looked back into his binoculars, the first horses you look at are the leaders, who at that time were already 30 or 40 yards infront of the fallen horse.

nothing Dooley could do about it. Stuff like that happens all the time to all announcers"

Awful thing. I hope there's no permanent paralysis. My best wishes to Rene and his family. He was a fixture at Arlington, he had a great career.

Hope the filly survives, too.

It is being reported on HRTV that he is paralyzed from the waist down.

Not sure what to say other than I feel terrible for everyone involved, especially Rene, who is just a fixture and a great rider.

Wow... that's terrible news. Sad to hear.

I'll 2nd that bigtime.

I just hope the best for him, his family and for all involved. He'll be sorely missed at AP!

I probably shouldn't say anything right now, but let's just hope it's post-surgery trauma and all that nonsense.

We are all members of the same community -- this great sport and industry. So let's all hope for the best for Rene and his family.

Eric

Agreed. A very sobering part of the game.

Terrible news....
 

All the best to Rene and his family.

I hope you're right.

Prayers for him and for his family.

i'm hoping that since he did have feeling below the waist just after the accident that any paralysis he may be having now is not permanent. awful, awful news. i hope he comes out of surgery well and that he makes a full recovery.
my thoughts go out to him and his family.

i'll second that

Get well Rene!!! Arlington just isn't Arlington without Rene

Saw this on another forum:

Classy move if that is true.

Very Classy! Man, I hope that since he did have some feeling in his legs after that he will walk agian. Get well Rene!

He IS Arlington and Chicago racing to me. I am hoping against hope he will fully recover.

Thoughts and prayers go out to Rene and his family. Hope things get better.

And I'll also add that is a real classy move on the part of E.T. Baird.

Rene is a good rider and I hope he comes back.

The article also says that the horse seemed to break its back also. I hope the horse will recover as well

http://www.bloodhorse.com/article/50929.htm

Not good news.

Best wishes go out to him and his loved ones.

no, it's not. but it's not over yet. ten days to two weeks before they know much, so i'm keeping my fingers crossed for him.

Great move by E.T. Very classy!

i hope e.t. has a banner day.

Don't think he's coming back to ride. Hope whatever percentage chance he has (to use his lower body) works out his way.

I feel so terrible for Rene. Definitely hoping the next 10-14 days bring good news. Remember that NFL player a couple years ago that everybody thought was gonna be paralyzed from the neck down? He's walking around today. I bet if there's the slightest chance, Rene will make it happen. Way to go E. T. and we're praying for you Rene.

For anybody who can bear to watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emEh3ChIt74 It's about 1:43 into it. It happens so quick and the camera just flies along so you don't even see the horse finally come to a stop as it were. She's still in the process of landing from the flip.

That Cajun race riding that people just love to let go (and actually openly encourage) didn't work out so well for the industry yesterday. Lost one of our best turf riders because of that Cajun "race riding." That kind of move is tolerated every damn day at almost every track. So, you get what you order. He knew Douglas had more horse. He saw a spot open for Douglas. Knew he would win if he took it. So he made damn sure he couldn't take it. He didn't even have enough horse to take that spot. When Douglas is pushed out, Cajun doesn't even take the spot. He takes the rail. He had nothing. That blows.

Sad news indeed.

Prayers for Rene , and all of his family.

Prayers to him and his family.....

He'll be in my prayers :(

Absolutely classy move by Baird.

A little nasty race riding--and here we are ...

Too late for the poor filly, and Rene Douglas probably shared the neurological damage she suffered in that awful fall ...

Head, neck, and back in humans and even more so in equines are very serious and hard to diagnose--I am sure the filly could not get up due to neurologicl impingement in one or all of those areas--so no fractures, but a grievous injury ...

Douglas may have a better outcome once the swelling from trauma and surgery subsides, and I am hopeful that whatever feeling he had below the waist is reason for hope ... Please ....

E. T. Baird was most generous in his offering ...

I heard ET won the 50 grander today, so that means about 3k to Rene, nice gesture by ET Baird!

whoever was riding the 1 will have to live with this
 

for the rest of his career.. completely blocked and needed to check, not move into Douglas....

I wonder why he as shipped all the way to Northwestern...
 

there are some world class academic centers in Chicago....

a shame.......

Northwestern IS in Chicago, but not very well-regarded for this type of thing. It's basically where rich people go to die or have babies, because their waiting rooms are very nicely appointed and the staff is attentive (I have had surgery there myself).
I'm sure he was taken there because of it's affiliation with the suburban hospital he was at originally, and I am pretty confident they called in a non-staff surgeon from U of C or Rush to do the operation.